


Wish You Were Here

by DoctorpooandtheTURDIS



Series: 1287 [10]
Category: Doctor Who, Halo (Video Games) & Related Fandoms, Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: this is not a happy story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-11-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:33:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27622105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoctorpooandtheTURDIS/pseuds/DoctorpooandtheTURDIS
Summary: Deep within a Russian gulag, otherworldly forces are beginning to stir. All the while, three prisoners are forced to watch, helpless. All they can do is hope that their friends will realize something is wrong.That, and pray for a miracle.
Relationships: Will Byers/Susan Foreman
Series: 1287 [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1713106
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you don't think the Doctor Who stuff is taking over the other bits of this little micro-universe I've built. The reason why I started introducing the Doctor Who stuff in the first place way back when so when we did finally get around to season four, there'd be people to get captured by the Russians since there's no way John would leave Hopper down in the russian bunker. And since Joyce is, presumably, going to be on the warpath in season 4, there needs to be someone she cares about there to get captured, so that naturally meant Will.
> 
> Which left a problem. How to get Will all the way to RUSSIA. The Doctor has a track record of getting captured, and since I'd already established him back during 'When Worlds Collide,' he seemed like the obvious choice.
> 
> So, what I'm saying is, i've been planning this for a WHILE.

Two guards walked through a cage door, down a line of prison cells. One of these cells had a small viewport, just barely open, and the two inside glanced at the door.

The guards stopped, one of them going to open the cell.

“No,” The guard’s buddy stopped him, “Not the aliens.”

The guard nodded and continued onto another cell.

The man in the cell sighed, going back to the wall, scraping out a calculation or just a fancy tally-mark on the wall.

“Father…” Susan looked to the Doctor; both of their heads shaved bare as they wore prisoner jumpsuits. “I’m scared.”

“…I know.” The older alien replied, tightly grasping her hand. “Someone’s coming.”

“How can you say that?” Susan asked quietly, despondent as the guards drug a screaming prisoner out of his cell. “We’ve been here for… ages.”

The Doctor screwed his eyes shut, as otherworldly chittering echoed through the prison. He clutched his temples, pained, as his senses went wild with the unnatural forces playing havoc in the place.

The elder Time Lord sent the human an apology for not being able to do anything more than watch, as the man’s flesh was torn apart.

Susan laid on her side, forcing her eyes shut as she covered her ears to keep from hearing the event happening.

The Doctor sighed, going back to scribbling. The dangers to being an adventurer in space and time, it wasn’t always fine and dandy. And contrary to popular belief, there were traps that could hold him.

This was one of them. And now there were others paying the price for it.

****

The frigid winter air bit at his hands as he worked, slamming a railroad spike into place with a sledgehammer. Snow fell thickly around the Russian compound, like ash from the sky, as more than two dozen others just like him worked, being supervised by guards on the ground level holding snarling dogs in place with their leashes and guards on the top of towers brandishing very obvious automatic rifles in their hands.

He stood tall, unable to continue for a moment, as his lungs felt on fire, and he wiped sweat from his brow.

Will Byers looked around the gulag, silently hoping that someone, anyone, was on their way to rescue them.

No TARDIS, the Doctor and Susan were out for the count…

It was all up to the Party now.

That is… if they could ever figure out what was happening.

Will felt a dark shiver run down his spine, and he pulled his Ushanka down.

 _“John, Cortana, El, anyone…”_ He thought to himself as he went back to work. _“Hurry…”_

He didn’t know how much longer they could last… but it wasn’t liable to be long.


	2. Chapter 2

Day 27.

The day goes by like every other day. The Doctor and Susan are given a barely passable excuse for a meal, pressed about what they know, roughed up a bit…

The guards get the ‘genius’ idea to separate them and make the Doctor watch as they let a few of the longer-imprisoned male inmates out of their cells.

The Doctor is terrified.

But not for Susan.

She kills every last one of them in the room with her bare hands before she’s finally subdued and dragged back into their shared cell kicking like a wild animal. The guards might’ve tried pushing their luck, but Time Lords had _four times_ the muscle density of humans, and Susan had been engineered to be the perfect Time Lord.

It was not a fight they could win, and since it took fifteen people just to get lucky enough to catch her, it wasn’t something they wanted to do.

The guards throw her in with the carelessness that somebody would through a garbage bag into a dumpster and lock the door behind them.

They don’t get to eat anything for the next five days.

****

Day 32.

It’s only a bit longer than a month, and already, it feels like years.

The Soviets keep trying to get information out of the two aliens no matter what. Waterboarding, starvation, beating, everything they can try to use against them.

They want the TARDIS. They know what it is. What they can accomplish with it.

Never mind that the Soviets wouldn’t be able to figure out how to pilot it on its own, the Doctor is _not_ going to put his ship in danger. Because right now, it’s the only plan he has.

****

Day 46

Susan can see Will in her mind, if she closes her eyes and focuses.

Because of the ‘enhanced interrogation’ tactics, she can’t reach out to him as easily, but she tries. She has to know he’s safe.

There’s a thin, scraggly beard coming in on his face, probably the first true facial hair Will had grown in his life. His slender frame is starting to become more muscular with the work he’d being forced to perform every day.

It’d probably be a huge self-esteem boost for him. But Susan can only see the sorrow and faint hope in his eyes.

And it breaks her hearts.

He’s hoping that the others are coming, she can tell, but there’s a problem with that.

The TARDIS had landed almost exactly on the same day as the destruction of Starcourt.

Meaning the entire time they’d been locked up, there was already a Will in Hawkins. There would be all the way until… God, she couldn’t remember.

In any event… rescue wasn’t coming for a while.

****

Day 60.

Will tries to think about happier times.

The games of D&D in Mike’s basement before it all went to shit, going over to the cabin to spend time with El before he somehow cocked that up, and just anything that made him feel slightly joyous.

He feels so _old_.

His bones creak, his muscles ache, and his lungs burn day after day.

The rail line gets closer and closer to completion, but there’s no end in sight. Maybe he could handle prison, if he was in there with the Doctor and Susan, but no.

The Soviets were clever about that. And though only killing Will was sure to make the two aliens clam up, they found different, perhaps even more effective ways to make them squirm.

Will’s doing his best to handle himself, but it’s not easy. All he wants right now is to be out of this damn snow, back in his bed, the thrum of the TARDIS massaging his bones, as Susan cuddled next to him.

He just wants to go _home_.

He wants to cry, but he knows he can’t. The moment he shows any weakness to the others in here, he’s dead meat.

He has to hold on for a bit longer. The Doctor has a plan, he knows it.

But it’s getting harder to believe that every day.

****

Day 65.

Deep within the Russian woods, where no one had tread in quite some time, there stood a lone blue box. The windows and signage outside were dark, even the lamp on top was dead, as it was covered in a thick layer of snow.

The windows and signs suddenly returned to life, the snow on the outside beginning to melt from the sudden resumption of activity.

With a thunderous thump, the light on top began to pulse, the snow falling and melting away as the TARDIS dematerialized.

The plan was in motion. All the three had to do now was wait.

****

In her family’s new house in Hawkins Indiana, Joyce Byers went about her day, currently playing host to El’s birthday party since the large house was the only place where all of them could comfortably gather.

“Alright, now…” Hopper was in the living room, performing the one card trick he knew how to do for El. “Watch.” He waved his hands, the card vanishing into thin air, before he pulled out a deck. “Now…” He threw the deck at the wall, all of the cards falling except for one that stuck to the wall.

El gasped in awe, looking to Hopper. “How the _hell_ did you do that!?”

“It has to be… card counting?” Cortana suggested, checking the card on the wall. “Glue? Lucky guess?”

Hopper replied with a theatrical shrug. “A good magician never reveals his secret.”

Joyce tried to smile, as she checked the clock, and the calendar.

They’d been gone a month, no word from any of the three. She was starting to get worried.

Cups on the counter began to rattle gently, before the entire house began to rumble.

“Earthquake!” Dustin screeched in terror, ducking for cover.

John looked around, the SPARTAN’s eyes searching for something. “This isn’t an earthquake.”

Wind began to rage inside the house, as the TARDIS began to land in the main room, solidifying with a thump, before the havoc died down.

“That’s Will!” El beamed, running over to the door.

Joyce smiled to herself, relieved. She should’ve known Will wouldn’t miss El’s birthday.

The people inside all waited for those inside the TARDIS to emerge.

They never did.


	3. Chapter 3

One night while in the prison, late at night after Susan had gone to sleep, the Doctor lay awake, staring at the dark ceiling.

He hated being cooped up like this. It wouldn’t be so bad, but the Russians were thorough, they took away everything.

He would try to open the cell, but he’s not a very good telekinetic, and his mastery over time left… something to be desired. Even Susan can’t muster the strength to get them out.

Even if they could get the cell open, they wouldn’t be able to make it far. And even if they could, what of Will, still stuck on the surface?

All they could do was wait.

Something cold coiled in the air, and the Doctor breathed in, as he felt something brush against his mind.

Something powerful. Something ancient.

Something evil.

The lights flicker, and suddenly, the cell is covered in dark, fleshy vines.

He knows what’s happening. The Doctor shot to his feet, looking around anxiously.

The door had been pushed off the track, and he ran out. He had to get away, fast.

While he’s running, he’s also wondering. The Mind Flay- Primordial, that’s what they called it in this odd amalgam timeline- had only been able to take Will because he was in close proximity to one of the Demogorgon’s portals.

The Doctor inhaled. Artron energy. TARDIS power. Since energy manipulation appeared to be one of the Primordial’s abilities, it seemed that ability extended to artron energy.

And since the Doctor was the only one there… it was seeking him out.

It knew. _How_ it knew about the Doctor was up in the air, but he guessed it had something to do with the Slitheen he’d encountered around summertime.

The Doctor ran up the stairs. He had to get outside. Outside meant he was somewhere he could run. He couldn’t run while locked underground.

The door clanged behind him as he ran out, and he froze, upon seeing the red lightning sparking in the sky.

It was there, waiting for him.

The Doctor looked around… nowhere to run. It was going to get him, regardless.

The Time Lord stood his ground. Preparing himself, one of the Primordial’s colossal tendrils spun like a vortex, crashing down on the Doctor.

The Doctor clenched his fist, steeling himself through the pain, as wind raged around him.

His eyes were forced open as tendrils of shadow wormed their way into his body through the corners of his eyes, then his nostrils, then his mouth.

His hearts raced and his body felt like it was on fire.

The Doctor’s eyes snapped open, and he looked around the cell, breathing heavily.

“Father?” Susan stirred. “Is everything okay?”

The Doctor smiled.

“Everything’s fine.”


End file.
